Stephen Amell, Superhero on Social Media

Many celebrities have taken on Twitter to interacting with their fans but not Stephen Amell, star of the hit CW show, Arrow. Stephen Amell chose Facebook instead as a way to engage and connect with his fans and up to date he has gained over 3,000,000 likes on his page. He did not do this blindly, he’s chosen Facebook as a specific path to go down. Stephen chose Facebook as a way to gain control over what gets publicized in his life rather than have it be pried by the paparazzi.

“…if you give fans a little bit, then when you ask for privacy you’ll get it. Whereas if you hold them at arm’s length constantly, everyone will try to claw and get at you.”

Stephen is all about handling your Facebook page as you would if it were your own Facebook profile. He keeps it fun, fresh and interesting. To engage with his fans, Stephen’s started albums in which he gives fun little challenges to his fans. On Mondays, he started a “Meme This Picture, Facebook” in which he sends out a picture from a scene from the show Arrow and asks his fans to meme the picture. It’s been a great hit as a lot of his fans participate in this challenge, garnering him even more attention to his page. On Fridays, there’s a “Fan art Friday” in which Stephen picks art from fans that gets sent to him. More often than not, he will pick art created by little kids, which creates a very genuine connection with his fans.

“It’s really not that much work: you give it 20 minutes a day, you find the stuff that’s important to you, you put up random things…”

Recently, Stephen has also taken up on raising awareness for the “Fuck Cancer” campaign. He’s even made a t-shirt design with his face on it holding up a post-it note saying “Fuck Cancer”. If Stephen had taken up Twitter in the first place, he wouldn’t have had as many opportunities to engage with his fans. There’s a specific reason in which he’s picked Twitter over Facebook.

As Stephen has expressed on multiple occasions, Twitter seemed more of a place where people would either express their love or hate in extremes. Facebook lets Stephen interact with his fans in a way that Twitter wouldn’t have let him. Twitter wouldn’t be able to let Stephen’s fans send him fan art, memes, or pictures of them wearing Stephen’s “Fuck Cancer” t-shirt. Although Twitter would let Stephen hold his Q&A with regards to the show Arrow and post videos on the fact that Stephen personally does the salmon ladder exercise as seen on Arrow, Twitter still doesn’t feel as personal as Facebook does. Stephen Amell had a vision on how he wanted to portray himself out to the public and with Facebook, he now seems more approachable and human than if he were to be on Twitter. It’s easy to be a superhero on a television show, it takes more skill to be a superhero on social media, and for Stephen Amell, that’s exactly what he’s done.